UNITEDRANT

Reds look to stretch Premier lead

Manchester United can stretch a lead at the head of the Premier League to five points with victory over Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park on Monday night. With Manchester City’s drawing at home to Sunderland on Saturday, Sir Alex Ferguson’s men begin the fixture with the advantage now firmly with the Reds in the Premier League title race. Indeed, United faces two pivotal, and potentially title-winning, fixtures in the next week after City dropped points at Eastland. Should the Reds beat Blackburn, and then Queens Park Rangers next weekend, Ferguson’s men will be eight points clear before Roberto Mancini’s men play again.

No wonder Ferguson focused on praising United’s nerve this week, with City seemingly coming apart at the seams over the past two months. Mancini’s almost permanently pained expression says much, while Blues Mario Ballotelli and Robert Kolarov came to blows in City’s weekend draw.

Yet, with United travelling to a ground where the Reds have not always enjoyed success, Ferguson knows that United’s advantage is based on the slimmest of foundations until converted into points. The Scot’s side has won just once at Ewood Park in the past four visits, ensuring few Reds will count the points won and advantage sealed just yet.

“Hopefully we can remain there but we also know that football can turn on you and bite you,” said Sir Alex.

“We have a small advantage, it’s not a great advantage; it can be changed in one game. We just have to take each game as it comes along, it’s the only thing we can do. Once the Fulham game was over the focus was on Monday night [at Blackburn] and after that it’s the game against Queens Park Rangers. That’s the way we need to handle it.”

Ferguson’s relaxed press conference this week offered a stark contrast to Eastlands where Mancini’s stress levels are palpable. Little wonder given the relative experience of the Premier League title run-in, and his players’ propensity to self destruct. That Mancini is increasingly calling out Carlos Tevez as a potential title-winner is, perhaps, the kind of “desperation” Ferguson again talked about this week.

“You get nerves. You are in a football job and it’s your life and there is anxiety but not to the point that you get desperate. We lost the league in 1992 with four games in six days and to see your lead evaporate like that – it felt like it had disappeared within seconds.

“There could be a shock around the corner now, you never know. We have done well in terms of getting into the position we are and now it is a case of playing our game and keeping our nerve. That is why I was so concerned in the last 15 minutes of the Fulham game when we kept giving the ball away.”

With possession in mind at Ewood Ferguson is likely to restore Paul Scholes to United’s starting line-up. The 36-year-old midfielder sat out the Reds’ victory over Fulham at Old Trafford last Monday, with Ryan Giggs unimpressive in his fellow veteran’s stead.

Meanwhile, Ferguson will choose between Danny Welbeck and Javier Hernández in attack, with the Mancunian youngster under pressure after a poor performance against Martin Jol’s Cottagers last Monday. Phil Jones and Chris Smalling are both available, but Nani is unlikely to return with the Portuguese still suffering from an ankle injury. However, Rio Ferdinand will start despite being withdrawn after 60 minutes on Monday night.

And United’s collective fitness is in sharp relief to the reverse fixture with Blackburn this season, when Kean’s men won 3-2 at Old Trafford in what still amounts to the biggest Premier League shock this season. That defeat came amid the most devastating injury crisis in Ferguson’s 25 year reign at Old Trafford.

Yet, after three draws in the past four years at Ewood United players cannot count on the three points won already, not least with that Blackburn defeat still fresh in the mind.

“It’s always been a tough place to go for us,” Giggs told ManUtd.com.

“It’s like a mini-local derby. We always take good numbers there but that just seems to lift the Blackburn fans, who are always up for it. On a few occasions down the years we’ve not played very well there and we’ve had one or two players sent off at Ewood Park as well. It’s just been a tricky place to go, although we do have good memories of going there from last season when we won the league at Blackburn.”

Meanwhile, Blackburn manager Steve Kean, who has led his team to 10 points from the past six games, could again be without defender Gael Givet. The Frenchman’s hamstring problem is yet to heal, meaning Kean could name an unchanged side for the fourth fixture in succession.

It is a remarkable turnaround by Blackburn, with Kean’s side bottom before the win at Old Trafford and the Scot under fan and media pressure. Now clear of the relegation zone, Kean’s men not only have designs on staying up, but securing an unlikely double over United in the Premier League.

But in Wayne Rooney, who has scored 31 goals in all competitions for club and country this season, Ferguson retains the Premier League’s most in-form striker. Little more than a year ago Rooney had been caught paying a prostitute for sex, and had blackmailed the club into offering a lucrative new contract. Now, Ferguson believes the striker’s goals and new-found maturity will fire United to a 20th domestic title in little more than six week’s time.

“You always see a maturity about players when they reach their mid-20s,” says Ferguson of Rooney, who is now 26.

“Along with their ability comes the thought patterns and timing. They are more in control of themselves in terms of what they are capable of doing. He could get to 40 goals. He has eight matches left, he can average a goal a game; you’d take that, wouldn’t you? We would reasonably expect eight more goals. Would he get footballer of the year? Well, you have to say that Van Persie has had an exceptional season.”

Eight goals would take Rooney to 39 for club and country, but whose counting if those strikes secure United the title?Increasingly in the driving seat, United will surely be desperate to ram home the advantage at Ewood. It is a venue where happy memories reside from last season’s title-winning draw. Travelling Reds will hope for a repeat experience.

Blackburn face Premier League leaders, Manchester United, this weekend coming off the back of a defeat to local rivals Bolton Wanderers last weekend;

Of the top 10 goalscorers this season, Ayegbeni Yakubu has the best shots-to-goals ratio in the EA Premier League Sports Index. Yakubu has racked up 14 goals from 30 shots, which is an impressive 46.6 per cen strike rate;

In Blackburn’s last game Morten Gamst Pedersen covered more ground than any other player on the pitch, clocking up 6.7 miles. In 25 appearances this season the Norwegian averages 6.5 miles per game;

Only Norwich City has made more clearances than Blackburn this season, with Rovers making 335 clearances to date;

Meanwhile, United’s Patrice Evra has averaged 5.5 miles per game in his 29 appearances for United this season, making him United’s top runner with 161.16 miles in total;

Wayne Rooney poked home from Jonny Evans’ pass last weekend – Rooney has now scored 21 Premier League goals this season from 71 shots at goal, giving Rooney a conversion rate of 29.1 per cent;

United has the best shooting accuracy of any team in the Index, with 63.7 per cent of the Reds’ shots hitting the target. Sir Alex Ferguson’s side also has the best shots-to-goals ratio of any team in the league, with a goal every 6.24 shots.

It’d be naive to assume a win, but given the difference in quality between the teams, and the opportunity that City’s faltering has given us, it’d be a huge disappointment if we finished the game with anything less. I’m well aware we have a poor record at Ewood Park in recent years, but it’s about time that was addressed.

this is a game that berbs needs to start or at least come on as a sub
we saw the panic last week in the latter stages against fulham
come on SAF, put the bulgarian on
starting with sweet pea is a no no

everyone in the media is writing us off tomorrow
fuck them
blackburn need to attack and will try and test de gea with their set pieces and high balls but the lad has been pretty top notch since december and will cope
another performance from tony vee will help but rooney really needs to be better than his last game which was pretty poor

Yeah it’s too late to turn to Berba now. What kind of motivation would he have? We’ve burned our bridges there. I’m not saying he wouldn’t try to be professional, but at this stage of the season you need the players to be really motivated to get you over the finish line.
Anyway, I reckon we’ll do Blackburn quite handily, I’ve got a good feeling. I suspect Fergie might name a dodgy looking tinkerman line-up that actually cruises to victory. I said Sunderland would beat or at least draw against City, so I’m on a roll with my predictions!

they will raise their game cos it’s united who have come to town – as most teams try and do
so no surprise there
that yakubu looks a handful even when he is not playing well
it’ll be a long evening if our defenders aren’t at their best – so less attacking wing play from evra or raphael would be handy

If Berbatov does get to play, he will deliver the goods because deep down he would really like to finish his career with Man United. He still has lots to offer but can’t do nothing sitting on the bench every week.

http://m.guardian.co.uk/ms/p/gnm/op/sCZQM5dP8XvMPSkOd_cicLg/view.m?id=15&gid=football/2012/apr/01/roberto-mancini-manchester-city-title&cat=sport
(not sure whether the link will work, it’s from the mobile site)
Clearly an attempt to psyche out united over the next two games. Still, it’s pretty startling to hear mankini actually admit that they’ve pretty much bottled it and that the blame lies with someone that isn’t Balotelli, even acknowledging he himself is to blame.
The article then goes on to say how he thinks we’re gonna draw at Blackburn – even so, we’ll be six ahead when they go to the Emirates, and there’s every chance they could lose that game. Squeaky bum time, indeed!
On the subject of berba, I really would like to see him play for us again but it’s hard to fathom a situation where he would at this stage. Especially with Owen coming back (typed with a hearty roll of the eyes).

This will be a real test. Sadly, their fans aren’t being a set of treacherous window lickin’ good types and might even get behind their team / mgr because it’s United, which can only make things tougher. Kean at least has their players bought into him, and they took all three at OT earlier this season which was a dumper of a result. I seriously fear they’ll be well up for this today.

If the crowd was wound up and shouting abuse again at their players and manager, then we might expect an easier time.

We need all the players to show up. They’ve had the weekend off to relax and get away from football. They need to re-focus today and put in a huge shift to get a good result. It is imperative with City imploding a little at the minute and pointing the finger at the guy who cracked in a belter at the weekend to get their heads back up, that we turn the screw as it shows they’re beginning to feel the pressure.

Ben Hulston said:
This will be a real test. Sadly, their fans aren’t being a set of treacherous window lickin’ good types and might even get behind their team / mgr because it’s United, which can only make things tougher. Kean at least has their players bought into him, and they took all three at OT earlier this season which was a dumper of a result. I seriously fear they’ll be well up for this today.
If the crowd was wound up and shouting abuse again at their players and manager, then we might expect an easier time.
We need all the players to show up. They’ve had the weekend off to relax and get away from football. They need to re-focus today and put in a huge shift to get a good result. It is imperative with City imploding a little at the minute and pointing the finger at the guy who cracked in a belter at the weekend to get their heads back up, that we turn the screw as it shows they’re beginning to feel the pressure.

Ferguson will have their heads right, and like you said, the lads are well rested and fresh.
I’m expecting United to stamp down a marker, and give Rovers a hiding.
After tonight, all the press will be reporting – “title over, Ferguson puts another one in his place”…
It won’t really be over of course, but Mancini might as well concede, after his latest man-management masterstroke… what a turnip.

“Badges, to god-damned hell with badges! We have no badges. In fact, we don’t need badges. I don’t have to show you any stinking badges, you god-damned cabrón and ching’ tu madre! Come out from that shit-hole of yours. I have to speak to you.”

Precisely that, DeadRevel. If we can get an early goal it’ll quieten the place down, maybe get some dissent in their heads again, and knock the wind out of the players.

Blackburn will come out all blood, spit, and thunder I reckon. If we can shut that down, we *should* be ok, providing all the players don’t start daydreaming again like against Fulham. Day dreaming / karking it.

I’m looking forward to this one… ultimately it won’t settle anything, but after City crapped themselves on Saturday, this’ll be a great chance to rub their noses in it… and that’s what Fergie will be saying as well.

Give Blackburn a mauling, while the Bitters look on… it will put an end to any fight they’ve got left, and Arsenal will finish them off at weekend.

no berba in the subs
hmmmmmmmmmmm
i’m guessing he has done something so grotesque in his past year that he will never play in a united shirt again
and with all that fannying around in the last 15 minutes against fulham, he would be the ideal player to keep the ball for you instead of passing it to the opposition

Commenter said:
Yeah, and he got the two goals back against Blackburn at Old Trafford. He also scored 7 against them last season. Madness really. SAF clearly holds grudges to the detriment of the team.

i think it’ll be a 4-3-3 with jones, carrick and scholes in midfield. looks blunt to be honest. hernandez won’t be creating anything by himself, so it’ll be down to rooney, valencia, and jones’s runs from midfield to create stuff.

maybe jones has been asked to mark the yak – that fucker can run our central defence ragged with his physicality if he’s on form.

It says it all that we’ve had 70% of the ball and yet De Gea has been the busier keeper.

Blackburns game plan is spot on. We have no penetration through their mass of defenders. As the game wears on, we will get more frustrated, Rooney will pick up a booking or worse and they’ll nick a win. I can see it now.

Yup, De Gea has had to do a lot more than their keeper. Hernandez is useless, and Rooney is stuck too far away from the danger zone. Hernandez off, shove Rooney up in their faces, put Young on the left. Maybe put Giggs on for Jones in the attacking midfield role. Jones is up for it, but Giggs has more class and creativity to make something happen.

fuck me, i was tearing my hair out till the 1st goal. there was no real threat till then except getting the ball to valencia. anyway, he’s becoming fucking immense, i have a lot of man love for valencia.

Great result, but halfway thru the second half we’d only had two shots on target, not good enough, and frankly Hernandez was shite and should be used as an impact sub at best, or sold to fund buying a quality striker.
DeGea was superb.

sweet pea has been pretty woeful whenever he starts not just tonight
he is the classic super sub in the ole mould – studying the pace of the game from the bench and then coming on and grabbing a goal is what he is brilliant at
and he has been injured/burnt out last year so whilst he hasn’t lit up the games he has played in, he has some time to learn
shame about berbs though
when saf was slating welbeck off, i couldn’t help thinking that the 1 player who can take the pressure off the team in this situation would have been the bulgarian
still, no matter how much i want him to play, it’s not going to happen

I wouldn’t jump to conclusions on Hernandez and his performance tonight. Such a compact set up just didn’t suit him. They closed play down well and out numbered us in the final third. They did it so well I don’t think Scholes even got one shot off from outside the box even though he had all that possession. With all that Hernandez nearly got the opener. The thing that lets him down in games like that is his ability to hold the ball up. SOmetimes he does it well sometimes he doesn’t.

I’d have taken a draw tonight. Thought Blackburn played well, sat very deep very compact. Very difficult to turn and get behind the back 4. IF we do win this title, bear in mind this is a squad in transition with lots of new and young inexperienced players at times looking very accomplished in tight nervy fixtures. Would be a serious achievement to look back on if it happens. People keep talking about it being a matter of time before city take the title. I wouldn’t be that confident if I was a city fan. United may add to this side, Chelsea may go on another spending spree? Looking at city’s remaining fixtures I’m seeing more and more dropped points. In fact they may struggle to win another away game. city are not a shit team nor a shit squad, they don’t have shit players. But what they are is a shit football club and long may it continue…

Commenter said:
I wouldn’t jump to conclusions on Hernandez and his performance tonight. Such a compact set up just didn’t suit him. They closed play down well and out numbered us in the final third. They did it so well I don’t think Scholes even got one shot off from outside the box even though he had all that possession. With all that Hernandez nearly got the opener. The thing that lets him down in games like that is his ability to hold the ball up. SOmetimes he does it well sometimes he doesn’t.

Looks to me, Berbatov is history! Never been impressed with Welbeck but Iam impressed with young Matts Daehli.
Guess we will always be good enough to win the English league but just not good enough to win the Champions league, unless we get rid of those GLAZERS.

Now LFC are ( hopefully ) well off the pace for a top 4 spot, wouldn’t we trade one of their league defeats for one in the Cup semi or final ? Ain’t goona happen unfortunately…
Anyway, I think we’ll be OK after last night, City have to come at us on 30 Apr. Gain two points on them in the meantime and we can clinch it there.

Commenter said:
Yeah, and he got the two goals back against Blackburn at Old Trafford. He also scored 7 against them last season. Madness really. SAF clearly holds grudges to the detriment of the team.

what about the time before those when he played at blackburn and cost us the league

Well why would you concentrate on something that happened 2 years ago?

Typical anti-Berb propaganda.

Oh and saying he cost us the league is the only pathetic comment on here. I seem to remember him creating a great opening for Valencia, who fucked it up. Something tells me you’re not still whinging about Valencia though.

Utterly pant-shatteringly brilliant night, which was difficult and required real patience, concentration and focus from the players.

Jones and Hernandez had terrible nights, but I don’t think it was their game. Jones did a job in the first half working hard and helping us to retain possession, which was why Blackburn looked dead on their feet after 70 minutes. Hernandez also kept their defenders moving and busy most of the night. I doubt the intention was to use the two of them to exhaust Blackburn but that’s what they did – Carrick and Scholesy very rarely had to break into sprints.

Tony V remains an utter beast, if only he could use his left foot but holy monkey-biscuits what a right foot he has. There’s no way that was “50/50”, the way he has hit that suggests to me there’s all intent there. If that’s the confidence he has at the minute, he will be our most important player on the rest of the run-in.

I thought every one else was largely superb. Rooney was something of a let down, but he’s being asked to “do a job” in games at the minute. Against QPR I imagine he’ll be let properly off the leash. Young’s goal was very well taken. Evans and Rio has immense games, and how Evra manages to bomb up and down that flank all night I will never know. The guy desperately needs a rest, but he was good again and kept their flank pressed back.

uncleknobheadforfucksake said:
what about the time before those when he played at blackburn and cost us the league

eh? he had a poor game, but so did everyone else. they showed the highlights of this 0-0 before the game last night. berba played in tony v for a one-on-one, which he missed. that was the only really clear chance. berba had a decent volley brilliantly blocked by jones and g nev missed a chance on his left foot. harldy culpable for the title. i’d say it had more to do with United failing to turn up at home against chelsea and losing.
not trusted in the run-in last year? i seem to remember important goals and performances against bolton and fulham.
there’s enough evidence to highlight berba’s ineffectiveness and fergie’s lack of confidence in him, without having to make stuff up.
unclekiddlyfiddler, do you still not rate tony v too?

I don’t like the abuse Berbatov gets from some either… but you can’t deny the point Knobby is making.
Ferguson has completely lost faith in Berbatov… and it’s not like Berbatov stirs shit in the press, or has spat his dummy… at least not that we know… it can only be for football reasons, that Ferguson has decided Berbatov doesn’t fit his plans…
And anyone saying that Berbatov would have scored for fun last night is full of shit… that’s just speculation, and you could just as easily claim that his slower style of play would have suited Blackburn even better… and cost us the game.

“Badges, to god-damned hell with badges! We have no badges. In fact, we don’t need badges. I don’t have to show you any stinking badges, you god-damned cabrón and ching’ tu madre! Come out from that shit-hole of yours. I have to speak to you.”

Alfonso Bedoya said:
I don’t like the abuse Berbatov gets from some either… but you can’t deny the point Knobby is making.

Ferguson has completely lost faith in Berbatov… and it’s not like Berbatov stirs shit in the press, or has spat his dummy… at least not that we know… it can only be for football reasons, that Ferguson has decided Berbatov doesn’t fit his plans…

And anyone saying that Berbatov would have scored for fun last night is full of shit… that’s just speculation, and you could just as easily claim that his slower style of play would have suited Blackburn even better… and cost us the game.

No it’s definitely pure footballing reasons that has seen Berba sidelined. Although I think lately Fergie doesn’t even bother putting him on the bench because things have got to the point that he knows the player wouldn’t be very motivated even when called on (though I think he’d try to be a professional), and he doesn’t want to rely on him at all because he knows he’s not the future of the team, so it’s better to get the likes of Hernandez and Welbeck used to relying on themselves.

But I do think Berba would have been ideal for the Blackburn game. Obviously it’s speculation, but the reality is that he’s a very high quality finisher and creator in a packed penalty box. In games when we dominate possession, it highlights all his qualities and masks his deficiencies. He’s no use if we’ve a real battle on our hands, but in games like that we can afford the “luxury” of Berba. It’s not like Hernandez did anything useful anyway, so it could hardly have been worse to have Berba on instead.

But it really looks to me like we need a top quality striker if we’re going to continue to play Rooney in the more withdrawn, creative role. A club like ours deserves a player of the quality of Benzema, Llorente, or Cavani up top. Imagine what a player like that would have done against Blackburn.

aye but uncle won’t slap hernandez down will he? sweet pea has had a mare of a season considering what we expected of him, but doubt our resident galway is going to slate him or welbeck for that matter
yes berba cost a fortune but putting him on the bench for the best part of this season doesn’t make any sense especially when you need some experienced forward to hold the ball up as you did against fulham and yesterday after we had scored
sad way to treat a quality player who would have wiped out city’s goal difference in the past 2 games singlehandedly – as uncle always maintains, he can do it against the riff raff so why not give him the chance?

No we don’t know if Berba would have been successful. All I know is that pace was rarely effective last night. Blackburn were camped in their own box, and we needed a playmaker in an advanced position – I just think Berba fits the bill perfectly.

In the end it doesn’t matter, we won, with a Fergie favourite in Valencia. No complaints from me about that.

bman I doubt an out and out striker would have done much IMO. We needed midfield guile and pace not a forward. I still think we could forget buying yet another striker – having 4 strikers a la 1999 is redundant now. Just ensure we get the right midfielder, whatever the price.

I don’t like all this presumptuous talk in the media that the league is all but won. We’re massive favourites but we still need to make sure we win the next 4 fixtures.
I’m a bit worried about complacency creeping in, especially given the teams we’ve got left to play.
Wigan away could be a banana skin if we’re not careful.

Honestly if Arsenal had kept up form they would have pushed City for 2nd come the end of the season. The momentum is gone from City, I don’t see them winning all their remaining games while United have looked fresher in recent months.

I said after the Chelsea game in September United would win the league by ten points and I feel it will be around that.

Commenter said:
Sorry mate, didn’t want to insult you or anything. It’s just that you’re a fucking idiot.

You’d sell Nani, Cleverley Pogba, Welbeck and Hernandez. You wouldn’t give a starting 11 place to Carrick or Valencia.

Therefore you’re an idiot. I’m sure some other Ranters will vouch for my logic here.

Three of those are good but not great players (Nani, Tony V, Carrick), three are young lads with potential that may or may not make it (Cleverly, Pogba, Welbeck), and one is a not-so-young lad who looks like being squaddie quality only (Hernandez). Only a few would have a chance at starting regularly at the sorts of teams we’re supposed to measure ourselves against.

We are by far the best team in the epl and the gap between real and barca plus the rest is too large plus FIFA bums them too much. Take out real and barca and we by and large measure up even taking into account the shit euro campaign – look at the last five years not six months

We are by far the best team in the epl and the gap between real and barca plus the rest is too large plus FIFA bums them too much. Take out real and barca and we by and large measure up even taking into account the shit euro campaign – look at the last five years not six months

I don’t think you can say we measure up to the top teams in most other European leagues, our form in Europe this season proves that — we were outdone again and again by mediocre teams. The likes of Bayern would have slaughtered us. Yeah we’re great over the past five years, but you can’t pretend that we haven’t said goodbye to some of the best players in the world: Ronaldo, VDS, Tevez (before he started slacking off). Other top players such as Vida, Rio, Scholes, and Giggs aren’t as good as they were (possibly Vida if not crocked). So it’s just an objective fact that this current team is not as good as we were several seasons ago.

The plus side is that it’s definitely a “transition” team, even if Fergie doesn’t like to think that way, because he demands results all the same. Things change quickly with young lads, so it’s quite possible that even without buying any new players, we’d be much better next season. Lads like De Gea, Cleverly, the various young defenders, Pogba and Welbeck might all play better than they currently do, but they might also “click” as a team better. There’s a lot to be positive about looking forward.

Nevertheless, I still think we are one or two superstar-level players short of strutting our stuff on Europe again.

at ot
against midtable-relegation opposition
when the rest of the team are doing ok-flying
when we play 442

he has 9 times out of ten needed all of these to put in an acceptable performance

times he is useless:

against any top draw opposition
against any opposition that are bang up for it and havent shat emself
any away games
when hes the lone striker

his time at utd backs this up, therefore theres no business for anyone having wanted him to be involved against blackburn, who were up for it, we were away, we were playing 451 so he wouldve had to be the lone striker, and it was must win, so no faffing

taggart got it spot on leaving him out on monday, we battered blackburn, hes got it spot on leaving him out of the run in as he did last season except when he wanted to rest rooney against the likes of shaclke and fulham and blackpool (all games that gibson also played in ffs)and hes got it spot on fucking him off, albeit later than he shouldve